Center for Puppetry Arts "Down in Fraggle Rock Special Exhibition"!

Dance Your Cares Away at the Center for Puppetry Arts as they present a special Fraggle Rock Exhibition. 

Take a deep dive into the Fraggle Rock universe with this behind-the-scenes look into the history and making of the 1980s Henson Company classic TV show Fraggle Rock, and the 2022 version of the series Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. Classic characters from the original series including Sprocket, Red, Mokey, and the original Jr. Gorg, are joined by new characters featured in Fraggle Rock: Back to The Rock such as The Fraggle Troubadours and returning characters like The Ink Spots. Silly creatures, you won’t want to miss this one!

The exhibit opened last week and runs through November 3rd. 

Tickets for the exhibit are included with admission to the museum and can be purchased on the Center's websitewebsite. 

The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited Comes to LA!

MOMI's traveling The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited is now open at it's second location, L.A.' s Skirball Cultural Center.

To celebrate the opening, the Skirball is offering late night hours tonight, a DJ set by Timothy Nordwind of OK Go, roving puppeteers, and more.*

* Update: we've been informed advance tickets are sold out for this evening.

Here's a bit about the exhibit:

Immerse yourself in the imaginative world of Jim Henson (1936–1990) and discover his groundbreaking approach to puppetry and transformative impact on contemporary culture.

Featuring more than 100 objects and twenty-five historic puppets—including Kermit the Frog, Rowlf, Ernie and Bert, Grover, and other popular favorites—The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited illuminates Henson’s unique contributions to the moving image. Along with a talented team of designers, performers, and writers, Henson created an unparalleled body of work that continues to delight and inspire people of all ages to create a kinder and gentler world. 

Explore Henson’s enduringly popular productions—from The Muppet Show, the Muppet movies, and Sesame Street to Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth—through character sketches, storyboards, scripts, photographs, costumes, film and television clips, and behind-the-scenes footage. Then design your own puppet and try your hand at puppeteering in this highly interactive exhibition.

The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited is a traveling exhibition organized by Museum of the Moving Image (Astoria, New York) in cooperation with The Jim Henson Company, The Muppets Studio, and Sesame Workshop, and toured worldwide by Flying Fish. The exhibition features puppets and other objects donated to the Museum by the family of Jim Henson, plus works on loan from The Jim Henson Company archives as well as from private lenders.

Before opening to the public, LA Weekly LA Magazine, and EW took a stroll through the exhibit. So if you can't make it, check out their reviews and pictures.

The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited will be at Skirball Center in L.A.
June 1–September 2, 2018. Tickets and information are available at the Skirball center's website. 

Muppet Stuff Video: My Favorite Toy! Celebrating Labyrinth's 30th Anniversary!

It's been a while since our last video so in celebration of Labyrinth's 30th Anniversary this week, I though I'd run up to the Muppet Stuff Museum and make a quick video showcasing one of my favorite toys of all time!

Enjoy!

Muppet Stuff Video: My Favorite Toy! Celebrating Labyrinth's 30th Anniversary!

It's been a while since our last video so in celebration of Labyrinth's 30th Anniversary this week, I though I'd run up to the Muppet Stuff Museum and make a quick video showcasing one of my favorite toys of all time!

Enjoy!

Strong Museum to Display Jim Henson Merchandise!

The Henson family donated more than 540 licensed products and 60 books to The Strong Museum - other wise known as The Museum of Play - in Rochester, NY.

The Muppets, Fraggles, and Beyond: The Jim Henson Collection features dozens of licensed playthings and products, such as coloring books, activity books, board games, card games, video games, stuffed animals, puppets, jigsaw puzzles, music boxes, collecting cards, hats, calendars, and household decorations. The artifacts showcase many of Henson’s popular characters such as Big Bird and Grover from Sesame Street and Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy from The Muppet Show.

The Strong's Jim Henson Collection will open April 8.

More info on the museum can be found on their website. 

Center for Puppetry Arts Expansion Progress!

I had the opportunity to visit the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta last weekend and see the progress on their massive expansion project.

This will be the new Jim Henson exhibit area, set to open in October!

For reference this is how it looked before:

This is an inside look. No hardhat required!

Here are the plans for how it will look once completed. 

This space used to contain some of the Henson items on display but where put back into storage when vibrations from the construction become a concern.

The only two Henson items currently on display in the main area now are Charley Muskrat and Harvey Beaver from Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. 

 This section in the rear will be the new gift shop:

Speaking of the gift shop, it has be temporarily moved to a room that also showcased many Henson exhibits. Though there are still plenty of Henson items to found!

The recent Pez

Pillows, lunch boxes, plush and puppets, including the retired Jr Gorg and Mokey puppets from Manhattan Toy, get 'em while they last!

The Sesame Street section has many many plush, activity books, toys, and some Pajanimals!

There's also a great selection of Sesame puppets,

Kermit and Piggy Britto statues,

 as well as vintage Fraggle Rock PVC toys!

They have two Doozers as well as Boober and Gobo Fraggle. These were found by the 
Henson family and given to the museum to sell. They're mostly in mint condition and are being sold for a hardly wallet breaking $3.99 each!

That's a great deal for these very much long out of print Fraggle items.

If you have to opportunity to see the museum - I highly recommend it, especially 
once the Henson wing is opened.